Broad ambition stretches beyond Ashes

Ashes hero Stuart Broad wants England to use their Test series win over Australia as a springboard for further success.

The 23-year-old all-rounder was named man-of-the-match in England's 197-run fifth Test win at the Oval after his superb spell of five wickets for 37 runs played a key role in Australia's first innings collapse to 160 all out.

Victory at the Oval gave England the Ashes 2-1 but Broad, whose father Chris was a successful opening batsman in England's triumphant Ashes winning side in Australia in 1986/87, is eager for fresh challenges.

Back in 2005, England also won the Ashes 2-1 only for their form to dip soon afterwards. Even after this latest success, England still remained at number five in the world rankings and Broad, speaking at the team hotel here Monday, said: "We move on and focus on future challenges.

"Our ultimate aim is to become the number one team in the world - but that does not happen overnight."

England's win at the Oval, which they wrapped up with more than a day to spare on Sunday, also marked Andrew Flintoff's last match before the all-rounder's injury-induced retirement from Test cricket.

How England will cope without the talismanic 'Fred' has long been a topic of debate but they have certainly, as Broad pointed out, had plenty of practice in recent years.

"We are not rabbits in the headlights without Fred," Broad said. "We have had to play at times without him before.

"But he has been a huge help to me, and I cannot thank him enough for what he has done for English cricket."

There has already been talk of Nottinghamshire's Broad becoming the new 'Flintoff' just as Flintoff was tagged as the "new" Ian Botham.

"It's surreal being mentioned in the same sentence as those two," said Broad.

"But I'm not under any extra pressure - I just try to improve my game as much as I can.

"I'm certainly not in the all-rounder class Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff were - they could make big hundreds. But I would like to be in the future."